Aeronautics and Astronautics

Clara Sousa-Silva and Benjamin Rackham will be 51 Pegasi b Fellows at MIT within the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.

Lighting up exoplanets

The Heising-Simons Foundation selects Clara Sousa-Silva and Benjamin Rackham for 51 Pegasi b Fellowships at MIT.

March 27, 2019

The Apollo astronauts and engineers were joined onstage by some of MIT’s astronaut alumni, including two active astronauts, Mike Fincke and Warren Hoburg (in blue jackets).

MIT celebrates 50th anniversary of historic moon landing

Symposium featuring former astronauts and other Apollo mission luminaries examines the program’s legacy.

March 15, 2019

Danielle Wood (left) and Christine Joseph.

Microgravity research after the International Space Station

Researchers say new facilities in space should be available to scientists from any country.

March 12, 2019

MIT graduate engineering, business programs earn top rankings from U.S. News for 2020

Graduate engineering program is No. 1 in the nation; MIT Sloan is No. 3.

March 12, 2019

In a network analysis of data tied to Sierra Leone’s 2014 Ebola virus outbreak, PhD student Marie Charpignon discovered that poor health care access helped to explain why Sierra Leone fared worse than neighboring Guinea or Liberia relative to its population. Here, she explains her results during the Feb. 26-28 MIT Schwarzman College of Computing celebration.

Combining artificial intelligence with their passions

Research projects show creative ways MIT students are connecting computing to other fields.

March 7, 2019

Photo of MIT Building 10 lit up at night

QS World University Rankings rates MIT No. 1 in 11 subjects for 2019

Institute ranks within the top 2 in 17 of 48 subject areas.

February 26, 2019

Whirlwind I, the first digital computer capable of real-time computation

Twenty-five ways in which MIT has transformed computing

From digital circuits to ingestible robots, the Institute has helped spearhead key innovations in the technology revolution.

February 25, 2019

Scott Nill and Larissa Nietner at MIT Commencement in June 2018, just after their wedding and honeymoon.

Finding love in the lab

Mechanical engineering alumni and married couple Larissa Nietner and Scott Nill started their relationship — and two companies — as MIT graduate students.

February 13, 2019

According to Hamsa Balakrishnan, associate head of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, “When our students go out knowing where the state-of-the-art is in both the transportation domain and the technical disciplines, they are empowered to advance knowledge and have a practical impact.”

3Q: Hamsa Balakrishnan on reimagining the future of transportation

MIT associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics describes the seamless flow of people, things, and materials.

February 11, 2019

Left to right: Jessica Zhu, Stewart Isaacs, and Casey Evans

Three graduate students named 2019 Aviation Week “20 Twenties”

Casey Evans, Stewart Isaacs, and Jessica Zhu are honored for outstanding academic performance, civic contributions, and research.

February 8, 2019

About 130 undergraduates discussed the progress of their yearlong research projects at during the SuperUROP Showcase poster session.

SuperUROP: Showcasing students' research work in progress

Undergraduate researchers discussed their projects at a well-attended poster session.

January 31, 2019

MIT engineers have now developed an algorithm that lets autonomous underwater vehicles weigh the risks and potential rewards of exploring an unknown region.

Engineers program marine robots to take calculated risks

Algorithm could help autonomous underwater vehicles explore risky but scientifically-rewarding environments.

January 30, 2019

As drones increasingly take on the job of inspecting growing solar farms, Raptor Maps' software makes sense of the data they collect.

Optimizing solar farms with smart drones

MIT spinoff Raptor Maps uses machine-learning software to improve the maintenance of solar panels.

January 30, 2019

This mosaic image of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2 by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 15 miles (24 km). The image was obtained at a 50 degree phase angle between the spacecraft, asteroid, and the sun.

MIT’s REXIS and Bennu’s watery surface

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample-return spacecraft, carrying MIT instrument, arrived at asteroid in December; now begins the science to select a sampling location.

January 29, 2019

Using a new cooperative learning technique, MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab researchers cut by half the time it took a pair of robot agents to learn to maneuver to opposite sides of a virtual room.

Learning to teach to speed up learning

An algorithm that teaches robot agents how to exchange advice to complete a task helps them learn faster.